ALCOHOL

COLUMBIA - Those tiny bottles of liquor will disappear from bar shelves starting Jan. 1 as part of a bill Gov. Mark Sanford signed into law on Tuesday. Voters asked for the legislation when they approved a state constitutional amendment last fall to end a state law that required bars to serve booze from the 1.7 ounce bottles. South Carolina was the only state that served liquor only from minibottles.Lawmakers negotiated into the final hours of the session last week, agreeing to allow retail liquor stores the new benefit of delivering minibottles to bars beginning July 1. Retailers will be able to distribute larger bottles of liquor to bars, and the public would be able to purchase minibottles at stores as of Jan. 1.

Wholesalers were left out of the mix, but that issue will be revisited during the 2007 legislative session. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Teenage drama to begin filming next month

TELEVISION

CHARLESTON -- A new teen television drama, "Palmetto Pointe," will film in South Carolina beginning next month, the producers said.

The drama follows six high school graduates heading off to college and was originally set to be filmed in North Carolina. But a new S.C. law providing film incentives helped bring the production to the Lowcountry.

Sky Entertainment Group filmed the pilot in Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, N.C., and the show has been picked up for 17 episodes and will start airing in August.

The cast will include Shawna Waldron, who played actor Michael Douglas' daughter in the 1995 movie "The American President," as well as Nina Repeta, who played in "Dawson's Creek."

Under the state's film incentive law, major productions are exempt from local and state sales and use taxes.

Sky Entertainment hasn't applied for any of the incentives yet, so what deal they would get is unclear, said Jeff Monks, director of the S.C. Film Commission. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS